International Journal of Sport, Exercise and Health Research 2017; 1(2): 70-75 DOI:10.31254/sportmed.1205
An assessment of the state of sport infrastructural facilities in Universities in Zimbabwe
1. Department of Sports and Recreation Midlands State University, Zimbabwe
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Received: 17th August, 2017 / Accepted: 13th October, 2017
This study was on challenges related to inadequate sports infrastructural facilities in Zimbabwean universities. The study was influenced by the desire to improve university sports through the provision of adequate sports facilities, which will consequently contribute to the success of sports programmes. In this study, the researcher employed both qualitative and quantitative paradigms, making it a mixed methods approach, which was a subscription to pragmatism. One hundred (100) Sports Team Captains, chosen by purposive sampling, were part of the population, and they were questionnaire respondents. Fifteen (15) Team Coaches chosen by convenient sampling were involved and were participants in focus group discussions. The researcher also made observations of sports facilities so as to establish the availability and state of the various facilities and noted comments by participants about facilities during university games. The study found out that universities in Zimbabwe were faced by challenges related to inadequate sports infrastructural facilities for cricket, rugby, swimming, athletics, hockey, tennis and gym. The challenges were due to lack of funding for the development of the sports facilities due to the cash flow challenges affecting the country in general. The study also found out that, in some cases, it was a matter of prioritization, where authorities would give first preference to provision of academic learning facilities rather than sports infrastructure. The study concluded that the challenges in the provision of sports facilities in Zimbabwean universities could be alleviated by the involvement of various stakeholders who were the university management, the corporate world, national sports associations, alumni, the students themselves and the government through various relevant departments. There was need for aggressive fundraising activities by the universities management assisted by the alumni. Partnerships needed to be struck between the corporate world and local authorities so that space and resources would be provided for the construction of sports facilities. National Sports Associations could provide the necessary information about the facilities.
challenges, sports, sports facilities
